Good things can happen when a bunch of rebellious men gather in the back room of a bar. I have to remind my wife of this when I call to say I'll be home a bit late because I'm stopping by the pub with the guys after work.

I’m not sure why we try and turn the people we admire into infallible mythical heroes. I seriously doubt the founding fathers of our nation were anything like the characters that we learned about in history classes. Thomas Jefferson is a perfect example. A lawyer and land owner who was largely responsible for creating the declaration of independence was also a slave owner and ended his life deep in debt despite being given more than his share of wealth, education, and opportunity. I still admire Thomas Jefferson. In the same way that I admire the architects of the Ten commandments even though those same people tried to blame God for their ancestor’s desire to wipe out entire enemy villages including innocent women and children.

I love the concepts that our nation was founded on and I think every American should take a few minutes to read the Declaration of Independence on the Fourth of July. I also appreciate Jefferson’s ability to reconcile his post-enlightenment education and his faith in the message of Jesus. His deist understanding of God may have left him with a faith that didn’t fully integrate into his personal life, but it also helped him approach the Bible in a way that motivated him and led him to become a powerful activist. I can't completely accept Jefferson's deism, but I do agree with his rejection of a strictly theistic image of a God that actively runs the world from some location beyond the universe. I appreciate the positive effect that his image of God had on motivating his sense of personal responsibility for political action.

“[The Jefferson Bible] is a document in proof that I am a real Christian, that is to say, a disciple of the doctrines of Jesus, very different from the Platonists, who call me infidel and themselves Christians and preachers of the gospel, while they draw all their characteristic dogmas from what its author never said nor saw.” – Thomas Jefferson